[quote=AN][quote=bearishgurl]If your parents (or grandparents) presumably had this “wonderful opportunity” (to buy 30 yr bonds at a 15% yield) in 1980 with even half or less of $150K back then, why don’t you ask THEM if any of them took advantage of it?
Obviously, if they did, you would likely be supported by a trust fund today instead of toiling away as a “worker bee,” don’t you think :=]
It doesn’t matter whether or not they were average joe6p’s at the time. Go ahead, ask them if this was “doable” at the time whilst still paying their monthly bills to live and even raise a family.[/quote]It doesn’t matter whether one can take advantage of the 70s inflation and early 80s bond rate or not. That’s irrelevant. What I’m saying I can take advantage of it if we see it repeat again.
Obviously, you couldn’t. But some people on this board obviously could and did.[/quote]
To be fair, those on this board that *did* would have had to have been old enough to purchase their own bonds in ~1980, since we haven’t seen the likes of ~15% yields since ~1983.
If we should see yields like this in the future (and I don’t think we will), of course I will be too old to buy 30 yr bonds (if their yields at maturity are intended for my own use and not that of my heirs). But there would be nothing precluding me from buying lesser-yielding bonds for myself which mature in 5, 10 or 15 years :=]
